According to recent reports from the media and other sources the average car density per kilometer for Mumbai is the highest among the metros with close to 430 cars/ km of road available. Result incessant traffic jams on the western expressway and other office areas of the city. Surprisingly Delhi although has the highest number of cars at close to 30 lakhs in the country but it’s per km density of cars is only 93 cars / km. Kolkata comes in second with a car density of 308 cars/km.

Surprising isn’t it well that’s what reality is and as more cars get added with little or no space for expansion for roads and little addition in terms of roads we may be actually looking at a far worse situation than is today.

Mumbai probably takes the edge when it comes to public transports as compared to Delhi and that may be the reason why Mumbai has a lesser number of private cars as compared to Delhi.

Lets Consider the situations that arise out of these facts. Most Business districts in Mumbai are troubled with incessant traffic jams and snarls. Travelling on the western expressway is a pain as the usual time required to cover the distance between bandra to goregaon which are just 18 km away is usually one to one and a half hour during peak hours. This duration may increase but never decreases. Many a times people end up travelling for 3 hours or more each day which is approximately 12.5 % of their daily time availbale or 17 % of their waking time considering 6 hours of sleep daily, This is close to one fifth of our life just travelling.

With The Onset of monsoons this situation becomes even worse as the people who were earlier using the Mumbai local to travel shift to using their private cars, Taxis, the Ola’s and Uber’s of the world and auto rickshaws. This in turn leads to an increase in traffic congestion and higher chance of traffic congestions across the roads of Mumbai. This is due to the unreliability of these transport systems during the rains as many a times the local trains usually shut down due to heavy downpours in the low lying areas. And People to avoid getting late to work shift to car pools or using their own private vehicles.

The other snarl that people in Mumbai many a time face is that due to heavy rains the roads too get clogged and traffic slows down thus the time required to travel from point A to Point B usually gets increased by 30 to 40 percent thus the time required for you to travel from goregaon to bandra which is usually one and a half hour long takes close to two to two and a half hour thus the overall time spent travelling is now close to 30% of your waking time.

Many People who drive to work and back say that it helps them destress, but the reality is actually opposite studies by various independent research organizations has shown that driving might not be the stress-Buster that people think it to be. The Reality is far away from what we have come to believe. These studies have shown that the stress caused due to driving daily for more than an hour can lead to various stress related illnesses such as Blood pressure, Diabetes, depression among others.

Based on these researches Mumbai might be soon facing a situation where there is a drastic rise in the people with health issues related to stress.

Now there is also a situation where there are smart denizens of Mumbai who have hired themselves a permanent car driver for their personal requirements. Not relying on hiring temporary car driver where the overall expense might exceed that of the Monthly salary of a full-time personal car driver. They Instead utilize the time they buy by hiring themselves a permanent car driver from any of the driver service agency that are there in Mumbai, to do useful work like doing office work in the car, or listening to podcasts or read journals. They even de-stress by listening to music or their favorite shows on their tablets or Laptops. They know that if they are earning four to five thousand a day for working eight hours their earnings for the three to four hours spent driving is worth approximately Two and a Half thousand rupees which is just 20 % of what they would need to pay to the driver.

There is a concept in economics the cost of opportunity lost : That is what is the value of the opportunity you are losing by investing in activity A instead of Activity B.

Lets Look at what the cost of Opportunity lost could be for people who are driving to work and for people who are having a full-time driver.

The Cost of Opportunity Lost for People who are self-driving their cars :

Assumptions :

Travel time one way: 1.5 hours one way.

Approximate earning monthly: 1.5 lakhs, 5000 rupees per day. Working time 8 hours. Earning per hour will be 625 rupees per hour

Thus Cost will be total time spent driving is three hours thus the person would be losing approximately 2000 rupees per day which he could have invested into some useful work. Next the cost of health which cannot be measured as each individual could develop different Health Issues.

The Cost of Opportunity Lost for People who are using personal car driver :

Assumptions :

Travel time one way: 1.5 hours one way.

Approximate earning monthly: 1.5 lakhs, 5000 rupees per day. Working time 8 hours. Earning per hour will be 625 rupees per hour .

The salary of driver approximately 18000 rupees, per day cost will be 600 rupees

This individual would be saving 3 hours which they could potentially invest in making more money thus the person would be making 2000 rupees while investing 600 rupees thus the person could potentially make a profit of 1400 rupees per day just by hiring a permanent personal driver.

Next let’s Look at the cost of opportunity due to health issues, by delegating his/her driving activities to the car driver he would be potentially saving himself/herself from stress related issues.